the year of no sweater purchases

Except, of course, if it's a navy blue cardigan. I could use one of those lovely classic pieces. (Update: Mommy gave me a navy blue cardigan for Christmas! I love it!)

I resolve to stay strong.

I will not buy another sweater until 2012. Unless it's to replace one I already own - that would mean I have to give one away. (insert mini crisis moment here) I will give some of these sweaters away. I'll try!

My friend N and I were talking about our collections. Hers is an extensive pashmina-style scarf collection. She has so many beautiful scarves, and she loves it that way. My collection: 41(forty-one!) sweaters.

Ahem. This does include a substantial cardigan collection (17), both in 3/4 and long sleeve; cropped, and long length. It includes my three short sleeve sweaters, but not my sweater jackets (one zip up pink hoodie, one belted tan, one zip up turtleneck in gray). It includes sweaters of every color except for orange and yellow (I think I do need a yellow one...), and multiples in black, red, pink, and cream/white. Two green, one navy&green striped, brown cabled, light blue basic, a monogrammed College Choir sweater, and the two uncounted shrunken sweaters that I can't give away because they're so pretty. And the red cashmere pants/cardi lounge set I wear on special holidays with my hubby.

The collection includes a pink sweater with spots of chai tea stain - I'm not ready to give it away, because its graceful scoop neck and cables and lightweight make it perfect for spring. There's also the size-too-big practical white cotton cabled sweater with bright orange tempera paint on the left sleeve. That's where 2-year-old Joshie, one of my babysitting charges, splashed orange tempera paint on me while I was cleaning up his baby brother's spit-up. What a sweet memory.

There's the comfy cotton blue sweater that I wore on our overseas choir tour, the cashmere turtleneck I won on ebay, and my favorite black cardigan topper for my little black dresses. There's the just-a-bit small coral cardigan whose tiny buttons don't quite stay in the holes, the red cardi from my piano student, the tan cardi that my hubby says makes me look like a Reese's peanut butter cup(?), and the blue/aqua striped preppy one from my MIL. There's the set of two pink cardis from my mom for last year's Valentine's day, the cream and iridescent beaded one from a consignment shop, and my classic white one from Target.

And do I wear them all? Yes. Well, I try to. This was more difficult when I had them all stored in a tote box in the closet, which made it difficult to find the one I wanted or to remember that I owned a certain lovely red shawl-collar sweater. I finally decided to use the hanging sweater organizer that I used for shoes in college (this is another collection of mine, though about half the size!). Here are the organized, color coordinated results:

Good news: I just decided to put two in the give-away pile. On my way!